Tag Archives: Bruce Hornsby

In concert – Chaka Khan’s Meltdown: Bruce Hornsby @ Royal Festival Hall

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Bruce Hornsby (vocals, piano), Olivia Chaney (vocals, harmonium)]

Royal Festival Hall, London
Tuesday 18 June 2024

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood Photos (c) Ben Hogwood

Bruce Hornsby likes to challenge his audience. When I was fortunate enough to interview him for musicOMH, he went into some detail – with great feeling – about how the gig experience should not be a mere reproduction of his recorded output.

In reality, the opposite is the truth. While he presents his best-known material, he coats it in new clothes, pairing it in some cases with modern classical piano works. Ligeti, Webern, Elliott Carter and Schoenberg all make themselves known in the course of this solo piano set, their chromatic compositions a direct contrast to the pop songs with which they are juxtaposed.

Hornsby is a natural raconteur in between, his stories told with a glint in the eye but also with a good deal of meaning and emotion. The piano is his closest relative, for sure – and the feeling is that not a day goes by without Hornsby spending at least a few hours seated at the keyboard. Watching this gig is akin to eavesdropping on a practice session in the room next door. Sure, there are some rough edges, but they are all part of the charm – moments where the voice has to travel higher than it might normally go, or where there are too many notes to fit into the available meter at the end of a particularly fulsome improvisation.

For these performances are very much in the moment, and for that the audience is grateful. The Royal Festival Hall stage is an oversized living room, the audience effectively sat around the fire as the host tells his musical stories. The narration is kept brief, as the generous host ‘only has 90 minutes’ in which to fit the music he wants to play.

Ten minutes in and we have already had our money’s worth, in the form of elegant versions of Days Ahead and Soon Enough. In these songs Hornsby uses the piano as a miniature orchestra, creating colours through the unusual density of the left-hand part but giving us memorable melodies and lyrics too. The voice is in good shape, the piano even more so.

Cast-Off is the first to showcase his more recent musical directions, the co-write with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon a humourous tale of a man addicted to break-ups but one with a lingering sadness. The melodic profile is now angular, but the tunes still make sense, while the harmonies strain at the leash leaving their audience behind.

At times it seems Hornsby is determined to challenge and even rile the audience, with provocative one-liners and musical about-turns. The Way It Is now comes without its principal riff – but it still reaches deep into the soul, a moment for the audience to think and check themselves, assess their life direction even. It remains a special song, one of the ‘80s best, and the mark of a good song is that it can work in several guises. The same can be said for The End Of The Innocence, a Hornsby composition for Don Henley, which by its end inhabits the air of a Brahms intermezzo.

The co-writes are a source of constant surprise and wonder. There are songs written with Chaka Khan (the moving Love Me Still), performed with Sting, Eric Clapton and Bruce Springsteen (Halcyon Days), or with Elton John (Dreamland), where the piano line is recognisably the work of Hornsby.

He sings affectionately of his son’s dislike of school (Hooray For Tom) and ventures into ‘the curiously American genre of the murder ballad’ for the Pat Metheny collaboration Country Doctor, where wondrous things happen beneath the floorboards – aka the piano’s lowest register. This is the song with the most rhythmic drive.

At two points in his set Hornsby is joined by fellow singer-songwriter Olivia Chaney, who also plays harmonium. Their version of The Pogues’ Fairytale In New York is on the quaint side, and feels under rehearsed, but works thanks to the musicianship on show, even if the harmonium is low in the mix. Balance is restored for Mandolin Rain, one of the best songs on show, where Hornsby’s deadpan emotional guard almost slips.

He is a true entertainer, able to get the crowd eating out of his hand while they marvel at the skill and guile of a performer who has not yet been fully appreciated in his time. Fifteen albums into his career, Hornsby is more adventurous on his approach to 70 than he ever has been, set to challenge his audience even further with time. More power to his elbow, for a great pianist such as him deserves this stage on a much more regular basis. The crowd, discussing a memorable night, would surely agree.

Published post no.2,214 – Wednesday 19 June 2024

Online review – BBC Radio 2’s Piano Room: Five of the best

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by Ben Hogwood

Today (23 February) saw the conclusion of BBC Radio 2’s Piano Room month, which has been taking place every weekday for the last month.

For anyone new to the concept, it consists of a well-known pop artist delivering three songs in the company of a piano and the BBC Concert Orchestra. Generally they follow the format of something old, something new and something borrowed (which may of course be blue!) in the form of a cover version. We began with Bruce Hornsby on Monday 31 January (a performance already appraised by Arcana) and ended today with Pet Shop Boys.

The Piano Room has proved to be an enormously uplifting spectacle over the last few years, and a fascinating one too – the equivalent of watching a famous actor appearing on the West End stage. There are two things that often shine through in the course of a session. One is obvious, being the artistry of the main act in question, and their ability to breathe new life into their songs or well-chosen covers. The other is not so immediate, being the quality of the orchestral arrangements and the sheer ability of the BBC Concert Orchestra, who deliver their lines with incredible poise and great expression.

Here, then, are five top performances Arcana has had the pleasure to hear this month, in addition to the Bruce Hornsby already reviewed…bearing in mind that as I type this I haven’t yet heard Pet Shop Boys doing Left To My Own Devices!

Rick Astley – Never Gonna Give You Up

The sign of a song with ultimate staying power is its versatility – and when it can be sung like this, in a version that bears very little resemblance to the original, you realise again just what a brilliant song this is. Somehow the arrangers and Rick have worked in a pizzicato part for the violins that comes from Ed Sheeran’s Shape Of You – a very different love song, but one that fits this template hand in glove.

It also shows how Rick Astley has grown as a vocalist, making music that matches his experience but also his youthful approach:

Olivia Dean – Suzanne (Leonard Cohen cover)

This is an extraordinary cover version from Olivia Dean. Sumptuous strings begin and end the arrangement (made by Sam Gale) and Dean sings in a way that recognizes Leonard Cohen’s ability to wring great emotion from relative simplicity. She intones the verse and brings a swell to the chorus, giving the song a deep resonance. This is capped by the fragility of the closing violin solo, a moment of pure but devastating clarity (played – I am almost sure – by Charles Mutter). I haven’t been able to keep a dry eye watching it yet!

Jess Glynne – Everywhere (Fleetwood Mac cover)

This was a very pleasant surprise. I find I respect Jess Glynne rather than connecting directly with her music, though her Rather Be collaboration with Clean Bandit and her own Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself have shown their staying course, and Hold My Hand is on a TV advert several times a day. I wasn’t prepared for how much I would warm to this cover – sensitively done, a lovely ‘less is more’ vocal sung with evident affection, and some great work from the band (especially bass player Dishan Abrahams). Casting aside a well played but rather unnecessary reference to David Bowie’s Under Pressure towards the end, this is a beautifully made cover, which you can view from 16’50” on this link

Crowded House – Four Seasons In One Day

This short song gains an unexpectedly emotive orchestral prelude, made possible through a broad cello solo to set the scene before the song comes in. Neil and Tim Finn’s evocative songwriting makes an effortless leap from intimate voice and guitar to band and orchestra, telling the story in just as much detail as before – yet boosted by a beautiful string arrangement. You can view from the start of this link

Gabrielle – A Place In Your Heart

How does Gabrielle do it?! For 30 years now she has held the keys to an increasing array of radio friendly songs, and under the guise of an orchestra they blossom into even fuller colours. This, her most recent single, is a beauty – and touchingly sung, too, in an arrangement that adds a great deal of depth to the song. You can view from 7’23” on this link

And finally…what a lovely tribute the orchestra gave to Radio 2 DJ Steve Wright, playing his Big Show jingle in tribute to the DJ who died unexpectedly on 13 February:

You can watch the full set of Bruce Hornsby in the Radio 2 Piano Room by clicking here

Published post no.2,097 – Friday 23 February 2024

Online review – Bruce Hornsby in the BBC Radio 2 Piano Room

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by Ben Hogwood

Anyone listening to Bruce Hornsby‘s music over the last five years will know he is a restless artist in the best possible way, pursuing a direction taking him ever closer to the 20th century classical music he has come to know and love.

With that in mind, his billing at the very front of BBC Radio 2’s Piano Room month was always likely to provide something special – and so it proved.

Hornsby is a fascinating personality, one I was lucky enough to interview for an hour in 2022. We talked about his love of the music of Messiaen and Ives, and how his musical explorations with the New York chamber ensemble yMusic are taking him ever closer to those composers, without forgetting his earlier musical persona as writer of one of the 1980s all-time classic songs, The Way It Is.

His performance with the strings of the BBC Concert Orchestra showed how far that song has journeyed, finding new life through Tupac Shakur and now sounding more relevant than ever in troubled times. What struck here was the lightness of touch Hornsby applied to the piano, softer than the steely edge he used to apply. There was room, too, for thoughtful asides, departing from the song almost completely with the help of the orchestra – whose musicianship should never be undervalued, for they are one of the unsung jewels in the BBC’s creative crown.

Hornsby’s next song was Cast Off, co-written with Bon Iver frontman Justin Vernon. It is one of the many highlights from 2019’s outstanding album Absolute Zero, a quiet number but a frisson of resentment. “Is my back for stabbing?”, Hornsby asks, tellingly.

Then, by way of an enlightening mini interview with host Vernon Kay, Hornsby played The End Of The Innocence, a co-write with Don Henley who originally sang it in 1989. It is a wistful but moving song, and Hornsby did it full justice here, even breaking up the verses for tasteful improvisations with soloists from the orchestra.

His piano playing speaks with even greater conviction than his words, and the mood – while warm and cosy in the studio – reflected a stand against the troubled world outside the studio doors. Hornsby’s piano offers an escape from that, and if you haven’t watched it yet then you will find half an hour in his company wholly beneficial.

You can watch the full set of Bruce Hornsby in the Radio 2 Piano Room by clicking here